Tag: Cooking

Edward and I spent the day out today… well yesterday technically since it’s 2:30 AM. We both took a long weekend this weekend because I had a lieu day that I wanted to take and I decided I didn’t feel like working Sunday so I took the day off and he ended doing the same. We went for a walk for almost an hour in Point Pleasant Park which is a large park in the south end of Halifax by the port. The view from it is beautiful, a view of the mouth of the Halifax harbour which is one of the worlds deepest natural harbours. The second I think (maybe the first?).

I took a few pictures with my phone but unfortunately they didn’t turn out to well so I didn’t bother uploading them. We walked for 58 minutes and walked 3.30 km. We were just walking really slow and stopping to admire the view and take pictures which is why we didn’t go very far distance wise. It worked out to 5981 steps and 288 calories burned. In total I actually managed to get 10,154 steps in. I have my goal right now set to 7500 steps, need to work my way up to 10,000 and beyond. I am really proud of myself I have met my goal every day this week.

It was a beautiful day out and reached 19°C and was nice and sunny. Maybe a bit of a cool wind down around the harbour but it was still nice enough I only had on a t-shirt and capris. I am so happy that spring is here. Now all we need to do is try and get our all season tires back on. We put it off because it really seemed like winter was never going to end. We had 4 storms over 10 days just the beginning of this month. Tomorrow (today technically) is supposed to rain like 20m but still get to 14°C, then Sunday is supposed to rain 5-10mm in the morning, clear up for a cloudy but 17°C afternoon. I am hoping to get Edward out driving. He is working on getting his license, he finally has his learners.

I have been thinking that I want to start some sort of project online maybe a clique or forum for diabetics or some sort of site where we can share stories, share recipes and support each other. I know there are tons of sites, blogs, etc out there and I really do want to try and do something a little different. I’m not sure what yet but I guess I will keep thinking on it and see if I can get some ideas. I don’t know maybe something more local, for people here in Halifax and Nova Scotia, some sort of support group/website.

One of the biggest things that has been on my mind lately is eating and drinking. I eat horribly and I never know what to drink. Despite that I have somehow been able to bring my A1C down to 6.1%. But if I am being absolutely honest with myself I am not really sure how I did it. I have made some changes. The biggest one was cutting out sugary pop. For much of my teen and adult life I have been a big Pepsi and Root Beer drinker. My husband and I have stopped buying regular pop. However we have just replaced it with Coke Zero (which was the closest taste wise to Pepsi I found), which I know is just trading one issue for another. This has likely contributed to my A1C lowering because I was drinking insane amounts of regular sugary pop before I was diagnosed and even a little after while I was sort of in the denial phase.

I have been trying hard to just drink water but I find it so bland. I am not a fan of the flavor water enhancers. I know they are sugar free but I find they are bitter or taste like chemicals. Which I know is the Stevia or Aspartame or whichever natural or artificial sweetener is in them. I don’t drink fruit juices unless my blood sugar is low and it’s all I have access to then I will for the sake of bringing my blood sugar back up. I really struggle with what to drink. I know plain old water is best and sometimes I actually just want cold plain old water but other times I crave the bubbly fizzy taste of pop.

I also really really struggle with what to eat. I am very picky and have some allergies. I’m allergic to shell fish and do not like any other kind of fish. I tested positive years ago for an allergy to peanuts and almonds and some other tree nuts (can’t remember which ones) and a few years ago found out I did not actually have an allergy to peanuts. I was recently re-referred to the Halifax Asthma and Allergy Clinic and was tested again for peanuts and tree nuts and she came to the conclusion that I have Dermatographia and Chronic Hives because I reacted to everything including me scratching my arm on her desk while she did it which swelled up had a big welt. So that had been giving me false positives for years. Blood tests revealed that I am not allergic to peanuts or any tree nuts. I have been slowly reintroducing them back in.

I only like a few vegetables like carrots, peas (kind of), celery (raw only, can’t stand it cooked), radishes, lettuce, cucumber and sweet potatoes and potatoes. I would love to add in more veggies but I hate the taste of cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, spinach, squash, green beans and eggplant. My friends and family always say it’s all about how your prepare them but honestly I have never been able to find a way to prepare any of them that make them even slightly tolerable to me. I tend to like raw veggies more then cooked. Also as I mentioned in my last post. I have no time in the day to make anything before leaving for work. I never have the time on the weekend either to do any meal prep for the week.

I have the hardest time finding things that I like to take to work. I scour Pinterest, Facebook, and websites for recipes and ideas and just never come up with anything appealing which typically leads to me bringing already prepared stuff from Sobeys (grocery store) or Walmart or getting supper in the food court at work or even drinking a Glucerna for supper. I have met with a diabetic nurse and a nutritionist and still find it hard to put their ideas or suggestions in place.

Sometimes we will make casseroles like Sheppard’s pie, scalloped potatoes or a macaroni casserole with enough leftovers to take to work with us. I still find though that I get bored with eating and sometimes I just don’t enjoy eating at all and find it more of a chore that has to be done then something to enjoy. I get so frustrated because I feel like a failure because I can’t really cook other then the basics.

I haven’t been counting carbs like I have been advised to because quite honestly it is depressing. I can never get it right. I always have to many carbs but yet am left feeling hungry not not full. The only time I thought I had a decent grasp on carb counting was when I was in the IWK Woman & Childrens Hospital for 4 days in October with a uterine infection and I had to choose from their diabetic menu. I kind of which I had kept a copy of it because it was so easily layed out and so simple. I wonder if I can find a copy online…

It’s been almost 40 days since our wedding and how does it feel? About the same lol I’m not really sure if I expected it to feel different? I really don’t know. Eddie and I talked about it some over the last few days and have come to the conclusion that that’s a very good thing

If anything I love him more and more and more every day so I know it’s the right decision for us. We are settling down and enjoying the married life but honestly day to day life doesn’t feel so different and I love it. I know that if you don’t live together first it must really seem different but we already knew what we wanted and had already established a pattern before getting married.

I love being at home with him during the day and I love still having the weekends together. I wish I liked to clean more and was a better housekeeper lol but I can learn. Cooking too. I really need to concentrate on cooking and nutrition and getting my diabetes more under control. I need to take some cooking classes or something.

I am loving working from home. I am not doing too bad. My speed is picking up and I can get each transcript done a bit quicker and I think my quality is improving as well. It’s all proofread by my Mom anyways as she is certified in Nova Scotia and I am not. We created a web site for our company and my mom is sending letters around to all the lawyers to let them know she started a new company with me.

I have created a LinkedIn page for the business and have been submitting it to sites like Yelp.ca and others. It’s going pretty good. I was also planning on selling Avon in my spare time but I can not get into it much. I love the products but I am not much of a sales person I will admit. I am going to try though.

I am really loving being home all day and working from home. I am however going to a job interview with Chapters/Indigo Friday and hoping I might get at least a part-time job out of it as 1) I would love to work in a bookstore and 2) I need something to keep me occupied until business picks up more for our transcription company.

We are still trying for a baby but still having no luck. It’s really frustrating but at least now that the wedding is over and we are settling down we wont feel so stressed with it and maybe we will have better luck. We are continuing with testing to see if we can figure out what is causing the issues but now we can also start the adoption process which I am really excited about. We still have to be living together 2 years, married or not but we are 1 year into it now so we can at least get the paperwork going and start taking the needed classes so we can either foster or adopt, both of which we are interested in.